Halfway – Premiered at the 2017 Glasgow Film Festival, is now available on Flix Premiere

Halfway is a 2016 American drama film written and directed by British Ben Caird and starring African American actor Quinton Aaron (The Blindside). The film is Caird’s directorial debut and Aaron served as an executive producer.

Among prisoners released in 30 states in 2005 roughly 68% were rearrested within 3 years with over 75% rearrested within 5 years. Halfway wants to bring to light that there is a serious systematic failure within the American prison system, where a lack of opportunity for those who have transgressed in their past seems to guarantee a future behind bars.

Halfway tells the story of a recently released convict who faces the conflict of enduring ties with his old criminal world while struggling to adapt to life on probation as the only black man in a conservative white farm town. Byron is indebted to his white lawyer stepbrother, Josh, after he manages to get him out of prison early with the caveat that his parole is set to his family’s farm, where he will be given the chance to work. This move has the added bonus of keeping Byron away from the urban world that bore his troubled lifestyle.

As time passes, Byron forms a bond with the family for whom he becomes a source of comfort and support while also adapting to a more stable and structured lifestyle that most released felons never get to experience.

As the story reaches its climax, Byron is confronted by a final challenge. He sees his old but reformed gang colleague’s world caving in around him, and the all too familiar process of regression into his former life of crime, Byron must avoid the pitfalls himself. As his past collides with his present, can our flawed young protagonist keep safe the family he has grown to love as well as his own future?

Halfway was recently nominated for a 2017 British Independent Film Award in the Discovery Award category.